A chemically amplified resist composition used for semiconductor microfabrication employing a lithography process contains an acid generator comprising a compound generating an acid by irradiation.
In semiconductor microfabrication, it is desirable to form patterns having improved line edge roughness and excellent pattern shape, and it is expected for a chemically amplified resist composition to give such patterns. Hereinafter, “line edge roughness” can be abbreviated to “LER”.
Recently, a chemically amplified resist composition containing triphenylsulfonium 1-adamantanemethoxycarbonyldifluoromethansulfonate, p-tolyldiphenylsulfonium perfluorooctanesulfonate, and the like are proposed (e.g. JP2004-4561-A), and a salt providing a chemically amplified resist composition giving patterns having improved line edge roughness and excellent pattern shape.